The EU is preparing rules on algorithms that assess employees

Companies that measure people's performance with software may face new information obligations. Before publishing the draft, MEPs visited Amazon warehouses, including one in Sosnowiec.

At the beginning of December, the European Commission is expected to present a draft of the Quality Jobs Act, an initiative concerning the quality of employment in the EU. One of its five priorities is algorithmic management, meaning assigning tasks and evaluating employees through software. European Commission Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu indicated 3 December as the planned date, but that date has not been formally confirmed.

Seven MEPs from the European Parliament's Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) visited Amazon warehouses in Dortmund, Mönchengladbach and Sosnowiec on 26-27 October. According to My Company Polska, the visit to Sosnowiec took place on 27 October. EMPL Chair Li Andersson described the performance measurement system as a “digital panopticon”. In an interview with EUobserver, she said: “When you work faster, you have to work even faster.” According to her account, targets depend on the team's average results, and employees did not know what data was being collected about them. These are the MEP's accounts, not findings from proceedings against the company.

Agata Wypiór of Solidarity, Vice-Chair of Amazon's European Works Council, told EUobserver about the constant pressure of assessment, which is mentally burdensome. In an earlier statement to Rapporteur, Amazon stressed that automation reduces physical effort and improves safety, and that the company works with employee representatives.

The problem affects many industries. According to a JRC (European Commission Joint Research Centre) study, 24 percent of employees in the EU have their working time assigned automatically, and 13 percent have their performance assessed automatically. Using a different methodology, Eurofound estimates that as many as 42.3 percent of employees may be subject to some form of algorithmic management.

Polish MEP Andrzej Buła, a member of EMPL, told PAP MediaRoom that “the company should inform the employee that they will be assessed by an algorithm”. The legal form of the initiative has not yet been decided, and the December draft will only begin the legislative process in the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. Employers can already check today what data about employees their software collects and whether it affects bonuses, promotions or task allocation; some obligations already arise from the GDPR.